Incidence, diagnosis, and management of orofacial pain among new patients receiving tertiary care in Thailand: A 6-year retrospective study comparing before and during the COVID-19 outbreak

Background

There is insufficient data on orofacial pain related to the COVID-19 outbreak in Thailand.

Objective

To investigate the incidence, diagnosis and management of orofacial pain among new patients over the last 6 years, before and during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Methods

Medical records from new patients who first visited Chulalongkorn Dental Hospital between 2017 and 2022 were retrospectively investigated. The sample size was determined, and proportional stratified random sampling was employed to distribute the sample number proportionally across each year. The hospital number of each patient was randomised using online software as a sampling strategy. A data collection form was developed and used to gather information from the digital data system.

Results

At the first visit, 770 out of 1359 patients (56.7/100 people, 95% CI: 54.0–59.3) reported orofacial pain defined as acute, chronic and unclassified pain. The most common chief complaints based on the AAOP classification were odontogenic pain (90.00%) and temporomandibular disorders (6.10%). The top three provisional modified ICD-10-TM diagnoses among these patients were pulp diseases (21.95%), impacted teeth (20.65%) and dental caries (9.09%). 81.87% of dental students' provisional diagnoses matched the final diagnoses given by dental specialists. Only 63.38% of orofacial pain patients were completely managed during the COVID-19 pandemic with common procedures being surgical removal, extraction and root canal therapy.

Conclusion

Half of Thai dental patients seeking tertiary care at a university dental hospital reported orofacial pain, which was not impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In contrast, dysfunction-related problems in the orofacial area significantly increased during the pandemic.